The Darkening
by Tom
Summary: The Alliance is finally at peace... or so everyone thinks. Corruption exists within the highest echelons of leadership, and as plots, counterplots, and one man's greed threaten to tear the Alliance apart, the Beast grows ever closer...


AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm mainly a Reboot writer these days. Between that, school, and various other things, updates to this fic may be rather infrequent. This prologue is short as it is... so I'll upload chapter 1 later today. This is my first Shadow Raiders fic, and I haven't seen all of the eps- so if I make any mistakes with the plot or whatever, don't blame me too much. Of course I don't own Shadow Raiders; if I did I wouldn't go broke every other week from a ludicrously low source of income. With that said, I can't think of anything else... so, on with the fic.

The Prison Planet... On Doomsday 

Captain Baryte, former Quarrier and an officer in Sternum's resistance force, stared out the viewport in openmouthed horror at the hellish glow that irradiated the control room from space. Explosions shook the compound as Sternum's army dealt with fanatical resistance on the part of Jewelia's remaining attack force. Baryte shook his head, suddenly weary of the constant fighting, the endless killing that marked most of his entire adopted world as a battlefield. Well, it would all end today, he thought, staring out at the raging firefight as the two dwindling forces sought to finish each other off. Didn't the fools realize they'd all be dead in a few moments' time anyway? The Prison Planet barely massed enough to hold onto an atmosphere, so the violent seismic reaction of most planets to the approach of the Beast was strangely absent... but that didn't make the approaching doom any less deadly. "Activate the teleport engines!" he shouted, hoping that some portion of the comm system still worked. "Let's get out of here!" Seconds later, he felt a familiar twisting sensation as the engines took hold. Their reaction was sluggish- probably a result of the intense magnetic disruptions in the atmosphere from the Beast Planet. But abruptly, the starfields shifted around them... and the hellish glow had diminished not at all. 

Wherever they'd gone now, they'd pulled the Beast with them... there would be no escape, this time. The combatants outside Sternum's command post looked up in awe as the points of the enormous metal claw dug in, tremors shaking the rock beneath their feet and sending them sprawling to their knees. Then, with a sudden jolt of movement, the Prison Planet was being pulled in... drawn back toward the fiery maw of the Beast. "Everyone, fall back!" Baryte roared, activating the outside address systems. "Shields to maximum!" Perhaps once they'd been pulled in far enough, they could at least prevent the Beast Planet from threatening any more innocent worlds... it was a long shot, but there was nothing else they could do. Full planetary shielding went up around the Prison Planet, energy discharges flashing with coruscating brilliance as the shields reacted to the intense heat of the Beast Planet's malevolent core. So close, so close now... _It's now or never,_ Baryte thought, flipping the cap off a switch on the control board. 

Like the rest of the Prison Planet, the weapons systems were state-of-the-art technology... and had been modified heavily by Sternum in case of an Alliance attack. Baryte smiled grimly as the targeting reticule centered on the unholy red glow that marked the doom of his entire world. An attack by the Alliance was the _last_ thing they would have to worry about, now... the reticule flashed twice, signaling that it had a lock on the Beast Planet's core. Baryte took a deep breath, activating the comm systems once more. "All weapons... FIRE!" he screamed, depressing the control to release firing authority to the individual gunners. Gun ports extended all along the outside rim of the Prison Planet, swiveling to aim at the point indicated from Baryte's control center. Heavy particle beams lanced out from a hundred different points all over the station, shields flickering, close to overload as they fought to fend off the encroaching, awesome power of the Beast. Missile launchers rose up out of nowhere from the planet's surface, deploying out from hidden bunkers under Sternum's headquarters, adding their destructive power to the full fury of the bombardment that was already underway. Still the Beast Planet closed. Baryte cursed. 

Sternum had packed the station with enough weaponry to deal with almost any assault the Alliance could unleash- but even this paled in comparison with the seemingly invincible approach of the Beast Planet. There was one weapon that still might have an effect. Baryte depressed one final control, one that had never been used in the history of the Prison Planet's existence. Sternum had been obsessive about it, keeping it maintained even though they'd known of no enemy powerful enough to merit its use. Well, it looked like the weapon would see action, after all. The rock that made up the station's surface shifted, shook as the massive barrel of the station's enormous Main Cannon extended from somewhere near the planet's core. Slowly, slowly, even as the shields flickered and began to fail, the weapon swung around, seeking the malevolent red core of the Beast. Baryte wiped the sweat from his brow, the control room grown noticeably hot from its exposure to the Beast Planet. The heat itself was almost unbearable; they'd been pulled past the point of no return now. The metallic skin of the Beast began to close once again, trapping the Prison Planet inside to be devoured. With an abrupt flash, the shields failed. "FIRE!" Baryte shouted. 

The cannon was still turning, still not aimed at that critical, vulnerable point in the Beast's defenses- but with the shields down, they had only moments left in which to act. A low hum reverberated throughout the station's structure, an enormous ball of energy gathering at the cannon's mouth. The blast erupted with the power of a small sun. Layers of armor from within the Beast vaporized in a single flash, the brilliant, violent ray of light cutting clear through to the outer skin of the monster planet- still moving in a slow, deadly arc toward the glowing red core. Another ball of light gathered, the station shaking now, coming apart as the cannon prepared to fire once again. _So this is why Sternum never wanted it used_, Baryte thought. _Its power will literally tear us apart... but at least now I know that the Beast is going down with us. Just a few more seconds..._

With an abrupt flash of light, the cannon exploded- back inward, toward the station. Baryte stared in astonishment. Razor-sharp claws had emerged from the bowels of the Beast, slicing the Main Cannon open from end to end. _Is it alive?_ he wondered, staring as the razor-sharp lengths continued on into the station. Huge pieces of the planet broke off, fire from the Prison Planet's defenders slacking off as the defenders themselves died, and crucial power lines from within the station were cut. Baryte closed his eyes in resignation. They'd barely managed to damage the monster planet... now it was only a matter of time. They were fully within the Beast's vast maw now, its outer skin long since closed back over their only exit. 

The Prison Planet came apart, piece by piece, horrified screams echoing through the still-operating comm systems as the line of destruction approached the control center. Baryte lowered his head, waiting for the end. Abruptly, a jolt reverberated through the control room. The hellish light outside disappeared, and cool seemed to return to the station. Baryte looked up. Had they done it? Had they won, after all?  Then the realization hit him, raw fear gnawing at his gut. They hadn't won at all... they'd merely been closed off from the core, from instant destruction. The Beast meant to capture them... it meant to seize the control center, and capture the teleport engines! Another jolt slammed through the control room. They were docked with the Beast Planet. "All hands," his voice was weary, tired, at the end, of fighting... of the war that had been practically his whole life. "Battle stations. Prepare the teleport engines for self-destruct. We must not allow the Beast Planet to acquire our technology... and if we're going down, we might as well take some of them with us. Fight well, friends... Baryte out." He unholstered his own sidearm, activating the room's security measures. 

Inches-thick metal slabs slammed down over the vulnerable viewports, bolts shooting through the already-fortified doors. Force-fields went up around the entire room- but he knew now it would only be a matter of time, one way or the other. The teleport engines required time to build up to critical mass, to self-destruct... and he could only hope it would buy him enough. Outside, Sternum's army and Jewelia's rebels turned to fight side by side, dropping one by one as Beast Drones poured onto the station. Wave after wave of dark bodies rushed the defenders, dozens of them dropping, the wave rushing forward to simply roll over the valiant defenders of this last bastion of freedom. Lines of glowing red metal appeared on the door as high-intensity cutting lasers sliced through the thick metal as easily as a knife through butter. Blaster fire echoed throughout the control room as the door went down, Baryte diving behind a steel column for cover as the last of the defenders poured out a withering barrage of laser fire at anyone who dared to step through that steel portal of death. 

Suddenly Baryte found himself staring down at the floor, jagged splinters of pain lancing through his shoulder. _Behind us,_ he realized. _They're behind us._ Beast Drones filled the control room now, the last of the defenders sagging to the floor. One of them walked up, extending an arm made of null energy straight through the control panel. Lamprey laughed as the self-destruct countdown halted seconds from taking effect, electric arcs and flame lancing out from the console as she withdrew her arm. "So, she hissed, her breath inches from Baryte's face. "We have a live one." "Kill me," he groaned, his mind awash with a universe of pain. "Oh, I don't think we can do that," she said. "You see, you caused an entire solar system to escape the wrath of the Beast. We'll get back there eventually, once your teleport engines have been repaired. But for now... well, it's been a long time since I enjoyed a torture session. Take him away," she said, gesturing to the waiting guards. Baryte's agonized screams echoed down the corridor as he was dragged into the depths of the Beast Planet to await his death. Lamprey smiled, red eyes glowing in the darkness.

A/N: Next chapter up today or tomorrow. Please review. -Tom


End file.
